Share

PacifiCorp has released the its draft 2019 Integrated Resource Plan (IRP), and if you’re a fan of solar energy, odds are you’re going to like it. If you’re not a fan of solar energy, why are you on this site exactly?

Under the utility’s “preferred portfolio” in the previously mentioned IRP, PacifiCorp plans to add 6.5 GW of renewables by 2025 and 600 MW of battery storage by 2025. The utility notes that this is the first time in its history that batteries are a part of its chosen, least-cost portfolio.

Of those 6.5 GW of renewables, 3.5 will come from wind generation, with the remaining 3 GW coming from solar. By 2038, those numbers increase to 4.6 GW of wind, 6.3 GW of solar and 2.8 GW of battery storage.

And, in an instance of true future-planning beauty, PacifiCorp has also outlined where all of this solar and storage will be developed, down to the last MW.

3,000 MW of new solar in Utah paired with 635 MW of battery storage, phased in between 2020 and 2037

1,415 MW of new solar in Wyoming paired with 354 MW of battery storage, phased in between 2024 and 2038

1,075 MW of new solar in Oregon paired with 244 MW of battery storage, phased in between 2020 and 2033

814 MW of new solar in Washington paired with 204 MW of battery storage, phased in between 2024 and 2036

We would now like to welcome you to another edition of the exponential capacity game. This week, our contestants are Utah, Wyoming, Oregon and Washington. First up, Utah, which has a current total installed capacity of 1,671 MW, most of any of our lovely contestants. This means that the additional 3,000 MW represent a nearly 180% increase in solar capacity. Next comes Wyoming, which currently has a total installed solar capacity of 108 MW, making the 1,415 MW on the way a 1,310% increase in capacity, which takes the cake for largest exponential capacity addition ever reported by pv magazine.

Our penultimate contestant, Oregon has a current installed capacity of 612 MW, making the expected 1,075 MW a 176% increase in capacity. Finally comes Washington, where the 814 MW laid out in the IRP represents a 413% increase in capacity over the state’s current mark of 197 MW.

Congratulations, Wyoming, you’re this week’s big winner. Honestly, with this much solar going around, all the states are winners.

And finally, with all these winners running around, somebody has to lose, right? Right, and that loser is coal, as PacifiCorp has made the decision to accelerate the retirement of five coal-fired power plants.

Of the 24 coal units currently serving PacifiCorp customers, the draft plan envisions retirement of 16 of the units by 2030 and 20 of the units by the end of the planning period in 2038. The unit retirements will reduce coal-fueled generation capacity by nearly 2,800 MW by 2030 and by nearly 4,500 MW by 2038.

Related content

Elsewhere on pv magazine...

4 comments

I am hoping that the solar and wind additions and coal collapse are accelerated in their next IRP. This seems like a slow walk more than anything else. But, I guess it could be worse – looking at you TVA.

This is an interesting fight. Wyoming looks like a big wave of alternative energy is sweeping through the State in the next few years. Yet there are still articles about the Navajo Nation in Arizona buying out bankrupt coal mining assets in Wyoming, the Cloud Peak Energy mines were bought in a bankruptcy auction. The Navajo Nation is infighting because of this acquisition. It is said, this will “save” 1,200 jobs, but at the same time in Arizona, the closure of the NGS coal plant and Kayenta coal mine is somewhere around 500 jobs gone.

A quote from The Hill: “”While NTEC’s position appears to be that it is independent of tribal oversight and can do whatever it wants, the proposed acquisition of Cloud Peak’s assets clearly contradicts tribal policy announced in April naming “clean renewable energy development as the Navajo Nation’s top energy priority.””

All lost in this will be the necessary transmission and VAR insertion required as part of the PAC/BHE Gateway West and Central projects to move the renewables to the western load centers with Bridger and Dave Johnston sync generators going away much sooner. That, and with the extremely deep BHE pockets that can develop mega-renewable projects cheaper from the BH +$100B cash hoard, not much opportunity for independent renewable developers.

Will be very interesting to see what happens with the Colstrip 500kV lines in Montana – BPA is pushing their use for MT renewables to WA, but solar development in WA may eat up all the E-W 500 & 230kV transmission capacity there, making them white elephants.

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Comment

Name *

Email *

Website

Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment.

Notify me of follow-up comments by email.

Notify me of new posts by email.

By submitting this form you agree to pv magazine using your data for the purposes of publishing your comment.

Your personal data will only be disclosed or otherwise transmitted to third parties for the purposes of spam filtering or if this is necessary for technical maintenance of the website. Any other transfer to third parties will not take place unless this is justified on the basis of applicable data protection regulations or if pv magazine is legally obliged to do so.

You may revoke this consent at any time with effect for the future, in which case your personal data will be deleted immediately. Otherwise, your data will be deleted if pv magazine has processed your request or the purpose of data storage is fulfilled.

Keep up to date

pv magazine USA offers daily updates of the latest photovoltaics news. We also offer comprehensive global coverage of the most important solar markets worldwide. Select one or more editions for targeted, up to date information delivered straight to your inbox.

Email*

Select Edition(s)*

Hold Ctrl or Cmd to select multiple editions.

We send newsletters with the approximate frequency outlined for each edition above, with occasional additional notifications about events and webinars. We measure how often our emails are opened, and which links our readers click. To provide a secure and reliable service, we send our email with MailChimp, which means we store email addresses and analytical data on their servers. You can opt out of our newsletters at any time by clicking the unsubscribe link in the footer of every mail. For more information please see our Data Protection Policy.

Keep up to date

We send newsletters with the approximate frequency outlined for each edition above, with occasional additional notifications about events and webinars. We measure how often our emails are opened, and which links our readers click. To provide a secure and reliable service, we send our email with MailChimp, which means we store email addresses and analytical data on their servers. You can opt out of our newsletters at any time by clicking the unsubscribe link in the footer of every mail. For more information please see our Data Protection Policy.

The cookie settings on this website are set to "allow cookies" to give you the best browsing experience possible. If you continue to use this website without changing your cookie settings or you click "Accept" below then you are consenting to this.